xp_logs | Julio and Angel - Wednesday Afternoon

2/3 of a trio try to cope when 1/3 of it is missing.

Angel curled up on the couch under the blanket, staring at the TV without really seeing it. The suite felt empty even though the rest of her friends in it were safe and sound. But without Jennie there, something was missing. And Kyle. And Marius. She curled up even tighter. The X-Men would find them, they had to, but until then there was nothing she could do. Just sit and wait for her friends to come back safely.

There was a knock on the suite's door. "Angel? Are you in?" It was Julio. He'd sat in his room staring at Kyle's neatly made bed for several long minutes before leaving his suite. It was way too quiet, even with the Samoan parked on the couch, asleep in front of the television. Instead he decided he needed to find Angel. Immediately.

"It's open," she called though she still scrambled out from under the blanket and up on her feet. Angel waited at least until he was all the way inside, door closed behind him, before launching herself at him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face into his chest, just breathing him in. It was normal, it was something that was familiar to her and she needed that right now.

Julio said nothing, just wrapped his arms around her and rested his cheek on top of her head. He held on tightly for several moments before speaking. "Are you all right?"

Angel opened her eyes but all she could see was the imprint of his shirt. "No," she admitted softly. "I'm scared and worried sick about them. I trust the adults will find them and bring them back but...I'm scared. You?"

Julio had been raised in a culture where you never admitted weakness, ever. Especially if you had a woman depending on you. But his pale face spoke volumes about his state of mind. "I...trust that the adults will find them. They found me once, and they did not even know me then. You will see, they will all be back here tomorrow." He did not mention the fact that horrible things could happen in the short time before the X-Men found their friends.

Nodding, she pulled back just enough to take his hands and tug him towards the couch. The need to hold onto him--half afraid that if she let go he'd disappear--was still strong but they couldn't keep standing up. "They'll be back in no time," Angel said in an attempt to reassure both of them. "We just have to keep thinking that, right?

"Right," Julio agreed, settling on the couch next to Angel, drawing comfort from her closeness. He put an arm around her and rubbed her arm in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "Kyle's snoring used to keep me up all night, now I wonder how I shall sleep without it."

After they were settled, Angel reached over and dragged the blanket over them both. Not for heat but for the extra layer of comfort it could give to them. "Does Mondo snore? Maybe you could get him to snore at you...though it's not the same. Kyle's special." They all are. "It's stupid, I'm not even scared for the fact that this could happen to any of us. I'm just scared for them."

"Sometimes they harmonize," Julio said dryly. This was hitting every one of Julio's buttons. And the fact that staff couldn't for certain say it wasn't Magneto that had his friends was not helpful at all. He would not be sleeping. Not until they were brought back. "I am. . .scared for them too. But, none of them have city-destroying powers. They will probably not be harmed in any way. More like, they are hostages, yes?" Oh, he probably wasn't helping there.

Angel winced, just a little bit. "Jennie can be really, really destructive if she wanted to be," she said softly. "They'll fight back, I know them. They'll fight and the X-Men will bring them home and I'll have a good cry with Jennie and the rest of the Teen Girl Squad and everything will go back to the way it was."

"Yes," Julio said quietly. "They will be brought back." But nothing would be the same. He knew from long, painful experience.

"I'm making a promise to myself. I'm going to tell my friends that I love them every day and I don't care if it gets old. I just want you all to know that and never have it doubted."

The was a mild moment of panic at the "l" word before Julio realized what Angel meant. And strangely enough, he found he wasn't disappointed, at all. "Yes, I shall tell Kyle I love him every day. In the manly way. With back-slapping. Marius and Jennie too."

There was a second of silence before Angel choked out a laugh, shoulders shaking a little bit. "That shouldn't be funny but it is," she giggled, looking a little guilty about laughing at a time like that. "You'll give each other bruises...more bruises, I should say."

"It is how men show our appreciation. By hitting one another." Julio felt a small bit of smug pride at getting Angel to laugh. "I hit Marius on the back of the head every morning just to say hello, and he kicks my legs out from under me."

"I'd totally berate you but it'd be a bit hypocritical of me since I tend to smack you guys around as well." Tomboy and yet not and that was perfectly fine with her. "When they get back, I'm smacking the living daylights out of Kyle and Marius and forcing Jennie to go shopping with me. Probably all in the same day. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan."

"It is," Julio agreed. He sighed audibly and rested his head against the back of the couch.

Turning slightly, Angel curled up tighter against his side and closed her eyes. "I just want them home, safe. Don't care how, you know? I wake up in the middle of the night and want to check to make sure everyone else is still where they need to be. Stupid."

"It is not stupid," Julio said. "You forget, I wake up and my roommate is not there." And he shied away from wondering what could be happening to him. Kyle had once almost been turned into an assassin for a shady government agency, Julio had been kidnapped and forced to blow up a city. Wherever they were, Julio hoped that they were at least safe. And alive.

Propping her head on his chest, she studied the inside of her eyelids. "I think we need to just kind of stick together as a group until they get back. Just be together, yeah. Like I normally don't run, but I'm going to see if Laurie and I can switch off exercises so we don't do it alone. Not that anything will happen on campus but just so we can be together."

"Yes. Do that. I don't want you walking around by yourself." Julio said. "I shall try and be around as much as I can."

"Good, I want you around." Groups were very, very good things. "Mrrf, I just wish I could do something."

"Not much we can do," Julio said lamely. "But I know they will find our friends. I have faith in that. Somebody told me the professor has a machine that can find mutants. I bet he is using it right now, looking for our friends."

"Oh, well, that makes sense. The Professor and the X-Men will be able to find them, we just have to have hope." And prayer and patience. Angel shifted again and nodded at the TV awkwardly. "Wanna watch something to help pass the time? Won't help much but I bet we can find something brain numbing. Sci-Fi is good for that kind of thing."

"Yes, something brain numbing would be good." Julio agreed. Pulling his arm out from under Angel and flexing it where it had fallen asleep. "Whatever you wish to watch."

"Something really, really horrible and the budget of a third grade school project," Angel said firmly, grabbing for the remote. "Though not Contact, Contact makes me fall asleep and stab things."

"Yes. No stabby would be good." Julio adjusted the pillow on the couch. He wondered if it would be forgiven for him sleeping in the girl's suite if he just happened to fall asleep on their couch. "I also suggest movies with lots of science I cannot understand."

"God bless the Sci-Fi channel. Some stuff is good but the rest will make our brain melt in ways never intended."